INDIAN WELLS, CALIF.—Saturday was a great day to watch tennis at the BNP Paribas Open, but a confounding one for anyone trying to create a coherent storyline about the state of the men's game.
In the first semifinal here, Rafael Nadal beat Tomas Berdych to reach the final of the first hard-court event that he has played in nearly a year. As Rafa made his seemingly inevitable way back from 3-5 in the second set to close it out, the words “same as it ever was” began circling through my head. Even after all of that time away, Rafa, and by extension the Big 4, still reigned supreme, while Berdych, and by extension the second-tier, were doomed to eternal failure in the clutch.
The words were still lodged in my head a few hours later, as the second semifinal, between Novak Djokovic and Juan Martin del Potro, reached the halfway point of its final set. By that stage the world No. 1, after a few fits and starts, was doing what we expected him to do: Leading del Potro 3-0, and running the big man ragged in the process.
But just when all appeared right and normal in the ATP, when a doubled-over del Potro looked ready to depart with honor, and a confident Djokovic appeared ready to take his place in what many people here were calling a “dream final” against Rafa, something happened. Something very strange happened. Was it, perhaps, divine intervention? After all, from Rome to Indian Wells, Argentines are getting used to having their prayers answered this week.
Earlier in the tournament, Del Potro had expressed his approval of Pope Francis I, formerly of Buenos Aires.
“I think he’s gonna do his work perfect,” del Potro said. That was obviously good news for the player, who described himself as “very Catholic.”
By today, though, del Potro sounded a little skeptical about whether the new Pontiff had really taken the time to help him through his upset wins over Djokovic and Andy Murray here.
“I talk a lot about the Pope [already],” del Potro said when the subject came up again. “I would like to enjoy my moment.”
Divine intervention? Maybe not. But we could call del Potro’s run to the final a case of divine in-vention. After an early-round match, he said that he was protecting his surgically repaired right wrist by using his slice backhand more. He went to it often against Murray, and even more so today. In the past, del Potro has had trouble matching up against Djokovic— he couldn’t hit through him, and he couldn’t out-rally him. But the slice backhand enabled him to stay in points longer and maneuver himself into position to hit his knockout forehand, which was clicking today. What started as injury prevention could end up giving del Potro’s fairly straightforward power game a new wrinkle.
“I used it a lot,” del Potro said of his slice, “because that helps me to play more aggressive with my forehand and try to do different things. That helped me to beat Murray yesterday, today Nole.”
Still, Del Potro said he didn’t think he’d unveil it quite as often against Rafa tomorrow. For logical reasons: “He’s a lefty,” he said, “and he moves really, really fast on the baseline.”
As for Djokovic, he arrived in the press room so quickly afterward that he still appeared to be breathing hard. In the few minutes that he was there, he told us that he didn’t think his third-set collapse had much to do with God or the Pope or anyone else.
“I just didn’t deserve to win today,” Djokovic said, scratching his head in exasperation. “[Del Potro]'s fighting spirit and my lack of concentration,” were what did him in, Nole believed. “Whenever I had chances, second, third set, I threw them away with some unforced errors. My movement was poor, and I congratulate my opponent.”
Djokovic said his backhand down the line, “one of my best shots, just wasn’t there.”
“It happens,” he said, “it’s sport, and I just didn’t make it this time.”
This is the first time that Djokovic didn’t make it since the fall; it marks the end of a 22-match win streak. As he said, a few things that normally happen for him didn’t happen today. He nearly made one of his trademark white-knuckle comebacks in the second set, rallying from 2-5 to 4-5, but he put a backhand into the net at set point. In the third set, down 4-5 again, he reached 30-30 on del Potro’s serve, only to make another uncharacteristic backhand error into the net.
Djokovic had been up and down through the week, and had trouble sustaining his good play. He won the opening set 6-0 over Fabio Fognini, then lost the second set; he bageled Sam Querrey in the first, then scraped out the second 8-6 in a tiebreaker; and he was the beneficiary of four double faults by Grigor Dimitrov when the Bulgarian served for the first set.
Still, Djokovic made it to within a couple of games of the final, and if del Potro hadn’t cracked a 133-m.p.h. ace at match point, he might have pulled off another miracle. Novak says he’s going to take a couple of days off and move on to Key Biscayne. That should be good news for his fans. Last year he was beaten, on a 135-m.p.h. ace, by John Isner in a close match in the semifinals here. Then he took a couple of days off, moved on to Miami, and won the tournament.